IT is 7:00AM as I write this. I am below the house we are staying in. The owner of the house, always has a cup of tea waiting for me when I come down the stairs first thing in the morning. He speaks no English, but is very friendly and enjoys looking at my pictures on my computer.
Not sure how many people or generations are in this house. Upstairs are four rooms, the living room with the TV and refrigerator and our bedroom and two other bedrooms, both very small. Both very small. They have sleeping mats in both, no furniture other than a table the TV sets on. Grandma is the only one traditionally dressed, she wears a headpiece that looks very much like a rural mailbox! Everyone else wears more modern clothes. Below the house is a small kitchen building, another bedroom where grandma lives, and the bathroom. Next to the building is the cistern that holds their water with a hose that goes into the bathroom.
The door on the right is the bathroom/shower
Next to me are two motor scooters and the laundry drying. Around me are the chickens. They are everywhere! Roosters, hens and their newly hatched chicks. And, just now a mama dog cruised by with her two little pups, into the kitchen they went; they were quickly shooed out.
Entrance to our “host” house
Marcos, the 21 year old son, who does speak fairly good English, was talking to me, when all of a sudden this chicken goes scooting by. He snatches it up by the legs and tells us this is breakfast for the family! He gives it to dad, (the tea-man) who quickly dispatches the chicken by ringing its neck. He next defeathers the bird in boiled water, it is gutted, off goes the head, he then opens and strips the intestines. He gives the body and the intestines to his son and all the left over parts are fair game for any cat, dog, or chicken that walks by! One minute the chicken is pecking around the courtyard, the next he is being minced for breakfast.
It is Sunday morning and everyone is getting ready to go to Mass. They do dress up. The older you are, the more traditionally dressed. They wash up, brush their teeth at the cistern and head up the hill.
Later…..just returned from our trip into Chiang Rai. They boarded us into first pickups then vans to the city of Chiang Rai. The northern most large city below the Burma border. This weekend is the yearly Hill Tribe Exposition. All the Hill Tribes from northern Thailand demonstrate they culture, housing and foods. Sorta like a mini-Epcot!
After buying a few souvenirs and trying chicken knees, into town for lunch, then we visit what will someday be a world famous Buddhist monastery called The White Monastery. 18 years on the making, the a architect/visionary expects this to take his lifetime to and perhaps longer to finish it. It is stunning!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment